I was starting to realize that I did not enjoy waking up. Sleep was a pleasant, comfortable experience in which there was no pain or longing. Being awake though, that was painful.

I had woken up on a medical bed, the sounds of various monitors surrounded me. The room smelled of disinfectant and soap. A hospital then.

No one else was in the room, but I did notice a camera in the corner. That wasn't creepy in the slightest. The rest of the room was empty save for the monitors and the bed I was laying on.

My clothes had disappeared, replaced with an ugly, green medical gown. As my eyes traveled further down my body, I realized that my legs were bound together with a leather strap. I tried reaching for it, only to realize that I couldn't.

Whoever had strapped me down had taken the liberty to handcuff both of my arms to the sides of the bed. I tested the right cuff, it wasn't coming anytime soon.

As I moved to the left I noticed something far more horrifying than any handcuff. Just past the cuff and the IV drip, there was nothing. The bastard had taken my fucking watch! Some absolute imbecile had taken my property, MINE!

Ok, maybe I was overreacting. But still, I wanted that watch back. It was literally the only thing I had ever owned, besides the clothes on my back that is.

All I had to do was wait, there was a camera here after all. Surely someone had seen me wake up.

So I waited.

My nose started itching. I tried reaching for it, only to remember I couldn't.

Eventually, I decided that I 'd done enough waiting. Time to... actively wait.

"Hello? Anyone Listening?"

It felt weird talking like I was violating some rule that I hadn't dared to before. There wasn't much point to talking in the city, in the first place there was no one to talk to, and even if there was, talking was just liable to get you killed.

I waited a few seconds without receiving a response.

"Look," I yelled, "I'm sure this is all just one big misunderstanding. Maybe you can come in here and we could work it out?"

I let out a sigh. It looked like I would be stuck here for a while. The itch on my nose took the pause in my thoughts as a sign to flare up again.

If it wasn't for the camera I think I would have cried. I needed adventure damn it! At least having a near-death experience would be interesting, this was just plain torture.

My thoughts of torture died down, and I was left alone in the room with just the sounds of the heartbeat monitor for company... and that damn itch was here too.

So I continued to wait.

After a while I got so bored I started counting the beeps on the heartbeat monitor. One, two, three... I lost count somewhere around ten-thousand.

Ok, fuck this. I'd had enough; it was time to put an end to this torture. I stuck my tongue out, trying to reach my nose. I was going to scratch that fucking itch one way or another.

The door opened and three people walked in

Immediately I retracted my tongue and put on my best innocent expression. If they saw anything, they didn't mention it.

The first two people to walk in were wearing uniforms. One was a middle-aged woman, who sported an annoyed look on her face. She took up position on the far wall, hand resting on a holstered pistol.

The other was a young man, wearing the same uniform as the woman before him, only with a smaller insignia on the shoulder. Probably the woman's subordinate then. He seemed nervous and was toting a rifle, not the best combination if I wanted to leave without a few extra holes in me.

The last member of the trio was an older man in a labcoat, much like his younger counterpart, he too was nervous, just a lot worse at hiding it. Thankfully, he wasn't carrying a rifle, instead, the only thing in his hands was a clipboard.

As the doctor moved to my side, examing the monitors the woman began to speak.

"My name lieutenant Anderson. Dr. Palmer here is going to ask you a few questions. You answer those, and we can talk about getting you out of those restraints."

I decided to answer with a nod, best not to say anything that might piss off the people with guns.

There was an awkward silence as the doctor examined the monitors around my bed. After making a few notes he moved back to stand with the others.

The doctor flipped through a few pages on the clipboard before looking up. His nervousness had dissipated a bit, but he still looked tense. After taking a shaky breath he started talking.

"As the lieutenant said I have a few questions here for you. Please answer them as quickly as possible, any hesitation might affect the outcome. Any questions?"

He spoke is a rushed manner, stumbling on a few words as he went. I couldn't help but wonder what had everyone so concerned. I hadn't done anything that I could remember. My musings were interrupted when he spoke again.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"I'll take your blank stare as a no. We'll start with a simple question, name?"

"Ezra." I blinked in surprise. I had responded automatically, with no thought about the question one way or the other. I didn't particularly care about the name itself, it was as good of one as any. But I wished I knew why I had said it. A question for another time I supposed.

"Full name please."

Unlike last time, nothing leaped out of my mouth. I hadn't put any thought towards one, and I wasn't exactly prepared to come up with one on the spot.

"Just Ezra."

He made a note on the clipboard and continued. A lot of the questions were nonsensical and often left me scrambling to think of an answer. How was I supposed to know what the color blue tasted like?

All of the questions were simple one-word answers, and any time I hesitated for more than a few seconds he would just make a mark and move on to the next.

Things continued like this for some time. Honestly, I was pretty confused by the whole thing. It didn't seem like the questions were supposed to make any sense. Maybe it was a test of my mental state.

Eventually, the questions just stopped and the room was returned to silence. The doctor continued to write on the clipboard muttering under his breath as he went.

As he worked the I could feel the tension in the room increase steadily. It got so bad that I swear I could see the young guy with the rifle start sweating.

Eventually, Doctor Palmer let out a sigh of relief, handed the clipboard to the lieutenant, and just like that the tension in the room evaporated. The lieutenant glanced at the papers and before handing them to the other guy.

"Jenkins, send this to Alpha, tell 'em we're all clear, and make sure to get the sergeant out of quarantine."

She added that last part like it was almost an afterthought. The lieutenant reached into her pocket and pulled out a set of keys, and started working on the restraints.

"I suppose you have a few questions, that's fair, but my time's valuable, so I'll only hit the big ones. For anything else ask Jenkins, as of today his only job is making sure you don't do anything too stupid."

I opened my mouth to speak, hoping to finally get some answers. To say I had a few questions would be an understatement.

"Wh-"

She didn't seem inclined to let me speak, however, because she kept talking like I hadn't said anything.

"I suppose you want to know why you're locked up. I'll do my best to explain things in a way that you can understand."

She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts before continuing.

"Every week the Dome resets and brings with something new. Each week is generally more dangerous than the last until after the fourth week, where it goes back to being a cakewalk.

One thing that always remains consistent is the type of threat. If the city has recently been hit by a demon invasion, then the only thing you'll find in that city are demons.

The only time you find humans is if they are part of that threat. In the demon invasion example, the only humans you'd find are cultists, demon worshippers, or something along those lines."

She paused for a moment to start working on my cuffs. It didn't take a genius to see where this was going. She was implying that I was related to insects somehow. Was I related to those insects somehow? I shuddered. The lieutenant continued, ignorant of my thoughts.

"There were only two reasons that I even considered letting you live. The first of these being that no threat ever leaves the Dome unless it's pursuing someone. Before you ask why no one knows. It's just one of the many unexplained rules of the Dome.

The second being that over the last two centuries twenty-six anomalies have been recorded, only two of which were human. The rest were completely different from each other.

The anomalies are weird can be anything. The weirdest one I know of is a giant, fire-breathing cockroach, and just like normal humans, they are completely unaffected by whatever keeps threats inside the dome.

That little test you just took was designed with the anomalies in mind, with the idea being to weed out anything that only looks human from an actual human. So I suppose some congratulations are in order, as far as the government of New Philadelphia is concerned, you're human."

Her last sentence was emphasized with a click from the last handcuff as it came off my wrist.

"So what now," I asked, "You just going to let me go?"

"Sadly, no. Jenkins will take you through an abridged version of orientation, after that, you'll be sent to the capital." She paused for second before adding, "Or you could just leave, not like I'm gonna stop you."

With that, she opened the door and left. When the door closed I the room was left in silence, broken only briefly by her yelling for Jenkins.

I sat in silence, lost in my thoughts. She had given me a lot to think about

----------------------------------------

I was pacing when the door opened again. The was unlocked, I had checked a few minutes earlier. As far as I could tell nobody would have cared if I had left, just like the lieutenant had said. But I had nowhere to go, and besides, I still needed to get my stuff back.

In walked Jenkins, he had ditched his rifle at some point and had lost most of the nervousness along with it. When he saw me he extended his hand, which I took, and introduced himself.

"I'm Private Frederick Jenkins, friends call me Fred. You're Ezra, right?"

Fred looked like he was in his early twenties, and still too young to grow a full beard. He had blue eyes and brown hair, and now that he was smiling, he looked kind of cute, well, in a puppyish sort of way.

"Yep, that's me. Lieutenant said something about an orientation?"

"That's the plan, though there are a few things we need to take care of first. Most importantly," he gestured at my gown, "are some fresh clothes."

He stepped outside for a moment and came back in with a small cart.

"Everything that was on you when the Sarge pulled you out of the lake's in here. Well, except the pistol of course. I took the liberty of providing you with some spare clothing. A lot of your old stuff's a bit singed."

I'll be waiting outside while you change. When you're done, come on out and I'll take you over to Alpha Site."

Them moment he left I jumped on the cart, looking through the things he had brought. I pulled out the clothes, looking for my watch. I had gone through most of the pile without seeing anything, and I was starting to get worried. These guys had stolen it, had they?

I shouldn't have worried, there it was, sitting at the bottom of the pile in all of its glory. I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding. This was one the few things I had ever owned, I'd be damned it if I lost to some stupid laser beam.

Everything else was there too if a bit worse for wear. The cargo pants and the t-shirt were singed, but still wearable if necessary. The boots and the leather jacket were both fine as far as I could tell. The only real casualty was the backpack, all of the plastic on it had melted, making it impossible to open. Not that I cared too much, clothes were replaceable, the watch wasn't.

Speaking of replacements I found the clothes Fred promised me. It wasn't much, a pair of pants and a tank top, but it was better than the scorched clothes I had.

I ditched all my old clothes save for the jacket; they were probably the best fitting clothes I'd ever worn, but seeing as there were only two other contenders, that didn't really mean much.

When I put my watch back on it buzzed at me, reminding me that I had outstanding notifications. Let's see: Extreme Dehydration, High Lactic Acid Blood Content, Deadly Temperatures, Mild Radiation Poisoning.

The first few were unsurprising, but the last one was more than a bit worrying. According to the logs, the radiation had maxed out as high as 400mSv, whatever that meant. Hopefully, mild radiation poisoning didn't have too many long term effects.

Dressed and reunited with my watch I was ready to go. It was time for orientation, and after that well who knew.

I couldn't help but grin, things were finally starting to look up.